Looks like DS9 will not get Blu Ray

It is worth remembering as well we were all very happy getting our trek on VHS on tiny tellies not all that long ago, I still remember paying £12.99 I didn't have to own certain episodes.

Whether it is in HD or not, it is still the same, often pretty excellent, TV show.

 

True, but the important thing here is the move away from small, low-res televisions. The SD pictures were find for those, but on today's TVs, the poor quality pictures (particularly on DS9) seem more disappointing than on the TVs of yore.

 

My point really. It's a constant game of changing expectations designed to take our cash.

I haven't got an issue with that, but before we all got used to be we were perfectly happy with SD!

 

It's interesting how you just killed your own argument with that post.

You keep mentioning how people involved with the production continue to say that a DS9 HD remaster is not happening, and yet the only one who has been quoted as saying that is Robert Mayer Burnett, the producer of the bonus features, who was an outside producer, and as your link provides, has had to backtrack on his words and that he was merely speculating based on what he had been told.

While Blu-Ray is the best for of HD for home viewing audiences, it is still a very small portion of the percentage of where CBS will be getting it's money from. With DVD and Blu-Ray you, the customer, pay once and then you own the physical disc (not the show) for your life, whereas there is more profit in broadcast where broadcasters have the rights for only a limited time before they are renewed, or even with depending on how the contract is worded, increased.

And right now, only seven months after the final Blu-Ray was released (more likely 9 months since 'All Good Things" was actually finished) is, to use an analogy, closer to 2 days since "All Good Things" was finished in terms of TV contracts. At this point in time, all this talk about TNG HD not making a profit or not is moot, as it has not had time to get on the air. There are probably a few stations out there where their SD contracts were expiring this summer, and they were waiting till all the episodes were available in HD before airing the HD versions.

Also, I find it interesting how the link also mentions how North American consumers are more into buying Complete box sets, rather than single-season releases. I've been noticing that over the past few years, more studios are releasing Complete Series box sets of TV shows on the same day that they release Season 1 (i.e. Ally McBeal, China Beach, 1966 Batman), and while it was not possible to do it with TNG, it is surprising that no North American Complete Series set has been announced (or that CBS didn't just do all 7 seasons and then release a box set, with an individual Season 1 on the same day, or as Warner's did with Batman, released a Complete Blu-Ray box set, with no individual Season releases on Blu-Ray, but individual Season released on ED (480p Enhanced Definition) DVD).

 

Keep believing what you want. You don't allow a team to perfect a process then let them move onto other projects if you're going to go forward with a very similar project.

The Next Generation is on the air on exactly one channel in the U.S., BBC America, they added the first two season in HD more than a year ago then stopped. Something tells me the ratings didn't make the cost of the upgrade worth it. Then you had dismal sales on Blu-ray.

Enterprise airs nowhere in the U.S., and had dismal sales on Blu-ray. Sense a pattern there?

It would be great if Deep Space Nine and Voyager got HD upgrades. But I seriously doubt it is happening. If they can't get the fanbase excited for an unprecedented restoration of a hit Star Trek series, then what chance do the far less watched siblings have?

 

Slightly off-topic, but I've actually found at its worst Enterprise has dated more than TNG!

 

I will say one thing (and this in no way is me saying this makes a difference to whether DS9 HD will or will not happen); SyFy UK is airing the shit out of TNG HD. S1 started back up again last week, and this is the third time round for the full series in HD in the 7pm-8pm slot (they basically show S1-7 in full, then start again straight away from S1 again). They also show small TNG segments during ad breaks called "Trek On", which is usually a humorous Worf, Data or Picard scene, to promote the series.

The channel also owns the SD rights to DS9 and Voyager, although DS9 is not currently airing since S7 finished earlier this year, while Voyager is the current lead-in for TNG HD.

They are also hyping up the fact that, for the first time in the channel's history, they have the rights to the first 6 Trek films (presumably in HD).

I guess what I'm saying is that, in the UK at least, there seems to be a decent appetite for HD Trek. Not that it would make a difference to CBS' decisions either way, but it is what it is.

 

Since SyFy keep airing TNG HD and Voyager SD almost in perpetuity, I think we have to assume that DS9 wasn't getting the ratings in the 6pm slot.

For those of us in Blighty, I believe the Trek movie run starts at 9pm on Monday 6th July with TMP, presumably that horrible, uncleaned, black blotchy blu-ray print.

 

On my cable provider, the quality of the BBCA broadcast for TNG S3-S7 is awful, too. I find it unwatchable, frankly. S1-S2 look great, though, as do other shows on BBCA, so I have to believe the fault is whatever BBCA is using for their S3-S7 source. I don't believe that TNG looked this bad first run.

 

They've blown up the 480i source of seasons three to seven to 14:9. The first two seasons are the remastered HD prints.

The TNG DVD's are really crummy though.

 

I suspect that is what the Horror channel in the UK are doing, whereas the CBS Action are showing the remasterered version (albeit in SD as it isn't a HD channel, at least not on free to air TV). Strange, as I'm guessing both are owned by CBS due to the identical advertising formats.

 

Perhaps it's the process they use to blow up the 480i source. Whatever it is, it results in a picture that's very hard on my eyes.

 

Don't just look at this for yourselves. If you're like me, you watched DS9 when it aired originally and bought the DVD's. But I have noticed something. There were a lot of people who didn't even watch The Wire (considered to be the best TV show of all time, I agree) until it was remastered in HD. A lot of people who are used to HD are not going to check out DS9 if it doesn't get a HD remaster. That would be a tragedy and that's why I really want an HD remaster, not just for myself. When I rewatch the show, I still see nuance I did not think about or see before. I'd like to see the remasters on NetFlix so folks can binge watch it and a gem is spread. Blu-Ray while the best quality, is not the future.

 

Some auto-upscaling of SD produces better results than others, but I couldn't tell you what it all depends on exactly. Maybe someone who's knowledgeable could comment?

 

There's no scaler that will help those TNG DVD's. They are similar to my Married... with Children DVD's. Which also come from a 480i, video tape source.

We might get a touch better product for DS9 and Voyager if the original, uncompressed video tapes exist. But the upgrade would be marginal, at best.

 

You know, every page I visit in this topic, basicly has the same posts over and over and over and over and over......

Let it go for now people. Nothing new and news-worthy is being mentioned, just the same arguments over and over. Perhaps a new topic if we ever actually get some news? And just let this die?

I mean, it would be an interesting discussion topic if new arguments were introduced, but there aren't.

 

Crikey - we aren't trying to ban pointless discussion from the Internet are we??!!

 

If only we could do something to stop you from being forced to click on the thread... oh wait.

 

Your post seems to imply that we are trying to reach a definitive outcome rather than using it as a platform to air our personal opinions on the topic. I, for one, am just doing the latter. I tend to see that as the main point of forums such as this.

 

Well, yes. That's how technology progresses. Paramount isn't in it for the "art" of television.

We changed our own expectations in HD. We saw it. Old CRT sets weren't good enough anymore and we upgraded.

A few years ago they tried 3D. It didn't work out so well. So the industry stopped promoting it.

Now they're trying 4K. If it works then it will replace HD. If it doesn't then it'll be like 3D.